by Wendy Elizabeth Middleton
The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks. Luke 6:45
Who Controls What You Think?
If you think the obvious answer is YOU then think again. Superstition, tradition, what you learned at home, what you leaned in school, what you learned in Sunday school, and what you learned in at the office gossip party 20 minutes ago all play a part in what you think.
Garbage In – Garbage Out
There is an old computer saying, “Garbage In – Garbage Out.” It means that if the code you write is garbage then the computer program will spit out garbage. It works for the mind as well. Your mind is a huge and complex computer that accepts every piece of data from every source that you encounter.
Garbage In
Every sight, every sound, every taste, touch and smell is rambling around in your mind somewhere and unless you analyzed it and attached it to something else in your head then it is bumping into other things and making its own connections.
If you accept the latest gossip, without considering the source, then you may wind up not liking someone who could have become your best friend. The source, the gossiping person, may have good reason to not like the gossiped about. But that is rarely the case with gossip. That is why gossip is also called ‘bad mouthing’ Gossip is rarely spreading good news, even when the news is good. Someone got a promotion, which is a good thing, but gossip shades it with envy. “Did you hear what she did to get the promotion?”
Is it true? Maybe, but how would the gossiping person know? Gossip breaks two of the Ten Commandments. False witnessing; because the gossip didn’t witness she just ‘heard’ and envy because the false witness wants it to be true. Or more to the point the gossip wants you to not like the person they don’t like.
Tradition
Traditions are wonderful things. Setting out the festive Christmas lights, eating pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving, wearing roses on Mother’s Day in honor or in memory, are wonderful ways to celebrate special event. My personal favorite tradition is using the Vulcan salute while intoning “May the 4th Be With You” just to watch the Trekies and the Star Wars fans trip over themselves correcting me.
For the record I am a Trekie, I have my own uniform even, and I watched Star Wars (called A New Hope now) 79 times when it first came out.
Tradition, at its best, reminds us of the important times of life, at its worse it is a rut we desperately want to get out of. One of my favorite quotes is credited to Albert Einstein “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting a different outcome.”
If you always do what you’ve always done then you will always get what you’ve always got.
When you dread going to work every morning and you are too tired at the end of the work day to think, much less think about looking for another job then will always get what you've always got. A dead end is only a dead end if you don’t turn around.
Knock on WoodDo you knock on wood for good luck or to ward off bad luck? Do you cross your fingers for good luck? Or do you cross your fingers behind your back when you fib? Superstitions are tricksy things. We don’t know where most of them come from but we use them because we sort of feel that we need that little something extra to bend the universe in our direction.
Garbage Out
It isn’t real, it doesn’t help and we know it doesn’t help but we do it anyway. It somehow got into our heads and it comes out when we need a bit of luck. Our minds are filled with random bits of information loosely stitched together in piecemeal fashion. It is not possible to monitor every piece of data that we are exposed to, however we can monitor the sources of information that we are exposed to.
We can train ourselves to recognize red flags such as the gossip’s “Did you hear?” and walk away. You don’t have to be rude about it, just say “Sorry, I don’t have time to chat right now.” And walk away. When you recognize a dead end, turn around. Store up good things. Store, gather, sort, sift, grab a garbage bag and toss the trash.
Consider the source. Decide what you need. Consider your options. Evaluate your choices. Compare everything to the word of God.
Put Treasure in – so that Treasure comes out
Simple – Ain’t – Easy
Think about it
Wendy
When you dread going to work every morning and you are too tired at the end of the work day to think, much less think about looking for another job then will always get what you've always got. A dead end is only a dead end if you don’t turn around.
Knock on WoodDo you knock on wood for good luck or to ward off bad luck? Do you cross your fingers for good luck? Or do you cross your fingers behind your back when you fib? Superstitions are tricksy things. We don’t know where most of them come from but we use them because we sort of feel that we need that little something extra to bend the universe in our direction.
Garbage Out
It isn’t real, it doesn’t help and we know it doesn’t help but we do it anyway. It somehow got into our heads and it comes out when we need a bit of luck. Our minds are filled with random bits of information loosely stitched together in piecemeal fashion. It is not possible to monitor every piece of data that we are exposed to, however we can monitor the sources of information that we are exposed to.
We can train ourselves to recognize red flags such as the gossip’s “Did you hear?” and walk away. You don’t have to be rude about it, just say “Sorry, I don’t have time to chat right now.” And walk away. When you recognize a dead end, turn around. Store up good things. Store, gather, sort, sift, grab a garbage bag and toss the trash.
Consider the source. Decide what you need. Consider your options. Evaluate your choices. Compare everything to the word of God.
Put Treasure in – so that Treasure comes out
Simple – Ain’t – Easy
Think about it
Wendy
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